To study history, you must first look at how people lived and what factors might have caused them to live that way. For many people, they have to adapt their lifestyles according to their geographic location. This could include things like the way they dress to the type of work they do. It is a fact that you will only be able to grow certain types of food in a specific type of soil. Even in today's society, we still have to adapt to our environment, which is influenced by geographic location. It's no different from ancient civilizations and where they decided to settle. What does it mean to be an ancient civilization? Webster's Dictionary defines ancient as having lived a very long time ago. Webster defines civilization as a relatively high level of culture and technology. Ancient civilization therefore consists of people who lived a long time ago and had a high level of culture and technology. Trigger, in his book Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, lists twelve different criteria for classification. Here are some of the characteristics according to him that a civilization must have a skilled workforce, divine power, a ruler, a writing system and a government. In the beginning, most people were nomadic hunters and gatherers. They traveled following the direction in which the food and water were going. These people therefore had to be able to adapt fairly quickly to the new environments they were experiencing. Then, as the population grew and technology increased, we started to see people becoming more sedimentary. People became farmers and ranchers to provide for their families. However, this raises some questions about where people settled? Why did people settle in these places? How did they get a... middle of paper...... it gives them transportation. Like everyone else, you adapt to your environment in order to survive. Ancient civilizations were no different. They had to adapt to their environment. They exploited the flooding of the rivers to their advantage. People used the new soil to grow crops that would work best in that area. Works Cited Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth R. Curtis. Travels in world history. Boston: Wadsworth Pub, 2013. Print. McKay, John P., Bennett D. Hill, John Buckler, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Roger B. Beck, Clare Haru Crowston, and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. Understanding Global Societies: A Brief History. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print. Merriam-Websters Dictionary. Np, and Web. May 5, 2014. .Trigger, Bruce G. Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.